Virginia crapper

Our  Parthenocissus quinquefolia   has not yet started to turn scarlet but already the hirundines are beginning to feel the gravitational pull of migration tugging at their wings. (The technical term for this urge, irresistible even in caged migrants, is zugunruhe.) Swallows  and martins have been darting through the air of these last few fine evenings with a particular urgency in their flight.

As I squinted up at the eaves to locate this summer's  single house martin nest I noticed the give-away sign that a late brood is still in situ. The tiny dollops of excrement on the leaves are what remains of the mucus-enclosed faecal sacs removed from the babies' bottoms by their parents in the interests of nest hygiene. Later on, the fledglings may stick their rumps over the edge to deposit their own droppings,  forming what I have seen referred to, rather quaintly, as a 'faecal wreath'.. (Who knew? The subject has endless fascination.)

The extra image shows a parent martin alighting on the nest with another snack for the tardy youngsters whose time in the nursery is fast running out. Curiously, something to do with the (over) exposure has rendered the martin's black wings completely white, like an angel's. 

(Talking of migration, this was also the day when many people in this area, as in others, dispatched a huge amount of supplies and equipment to  refugees in Calais and elsewhere. These 'migrants' did not require the hard-wired impulse of zugunruhe to impel them into flight, nor are they guaranteed a safe return home next year as are these birds, if they survive.)